Sexually Violent Predator Living in Carmichael Arrested for Violating Curfew

CARMICHAEL -- A sexually violent predator from Colorado has now been arrested in Orangevale.

Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies say 42-year-old Christopher Lawyer was in violation of his parole and was out past his 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. Deputies arrested him Monday in the neighborhood of Brando Loop.

"We've never had an event like this before, it's the first time ever," said Carmichael neighbor Phil Quinley.

Quinley is one of a dozen neighbors on Wingfield Way who is glad Lawyer is behind bars and no longer living on the block.

"Because we shouldn't have someone like that living around here, there's a lot of young kids here, there used to be a lot of young girls," Quinley said.

A registered sex offender, Lawyer has a long history of arrests that span two states.

In 2001, he was convicted in Boulder, Colorado of kidnapping and raping one woman at gunpoint and attempting to rape another the day before. After serving 15 years, he was paroled to his mother's house.

But after less than a month there, Lawyer was arrested for a different parole violation -- possession of images depicting torture and rape. Then, after being released again last year and trying and failing to move to another Boulder neighborhood, Lawyer moved to a home in Carmichael.

Quinley said none of his neighbors knew that until someone saw him on an online sex predator registry last week.

"I talked with all the neighbors here and nobody knew at all," Quinley said. "He was never on Megan's List, that's right. He just recently got put on it from what we understand, and that's a big mistake I think."

Deputies had been keeping a watchful eye on Lawyer since he moved through the Sacramento Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Team, which also has Sacramento Police Department detectives and the U.S. marshal on it.

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department said Lawyer was on local databases, however, they don't always alert neighborhoods. Their website does have an app which will alert residents when a sexual predator moves in.

Quinley felt somebody should have said something.

"I think we should have been informed more properly," Quinley said. "Either Colorado dropped the ball, and I think California dropped the ball too because they didn't obviously look into it."

Lawyer is being held at the Sacramento County Jail without bail. A parole board will decide if he's allowed to stay in California or if he's forced back to Colorado.

FOX40 knocked on the door of the home where Lawyer was rumored to be living with his aunt and her boyfriend. They refused to comment on the arrest.

Last December, Lawyer was a person of interest in a missing persons case in Placer County. Michelle Wong was later found dead, but investigators there cleared Lawyer, saying he was at work at the time of her death.